Door closer

ABSTRACT

THIS INVENTION RELATES TO A DOOR-CLOSER MECHANISM (PARTICULARLY FOR STACKABLE DOUBLE-SWING DOORS) WHICH COMPRISES A TURNABLY MOUNTED ACTUATING MEMBER, FIRST AND SECOND THRUST MEMBERS CONNECTED TO THE ACTUATING MEMBER TO MOVE IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS WHEN THE ACTUATING MEMBER TURNS IN EITHER DIRECTION FROM A REST POSITION, AND A COIL SPRING ENGAGED BY THE THRUST MEMBERS WITH ITS AXIS PARALLEL TO SAID OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS, WHEREBY TURNING THE TURNABLE MEMBER IN EITHER DIRECTION FROM ITS REST POSITION INCREASES THE STORED ENERGY OF THE COIL SPRING. TO CONTROL CLOSING OF THE DOOR DAMPING MEANS PROVIDING DIFFERENTIAL RESISTANCE TO MOVEMENT IN TWO DIRECTIONS ARE   PROVIDED SO THAT MOVEMENT OF THE ACTUATING MEMBER FROM ITS REST POSITION IN EITHER DIRECTION IS LESS DAMPED BY THE DAMPING MEANS THAN RETURN OF THE ACTUATING MEMBER TO ITS REST POSITION UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THE COIL SPRING.

E. R. MARR Dec. 7, 1971 DOOR CLOSER I5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed NOV. 6, 1969 n m. A mN E. R. MARR DOOR CLOSER Dec. 7, 1971 3 Sheets-Sheet i Filed Nov. 6, 1969 lnvenlor E. (Zonen r' /74/2/1 (Af/lr'. Attormy Dec. 7, 1971 E. R. MARR 3,624,864

DOOR CLOSER Filed Nov. 6, 1969 5 Sheets-Sheet li @rk in@ "N lnvenlor y 5.120891" 1A/m l Attorney United States Patent O 3,624,864 DOOR CLOSER Eric Robert Marr, London, England, assignor to Brent Metal Works Limited, London, England Filed Nov. 6, 1969, Ser. No. 874,657 Int. Cl. EOSf 3/00 U.S. Cl. 16-62 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a door-closer mechanism l(particularly for stackable double-swing doors) which comprises a turnably mounted actuating member, tirst and second thrust members connected to the actuating member to move in opposite directions when the actuating member turns in either direction from a rest position, and a coil spring engaged by the thrust members with its axis parallel to said opposite directions, whereby turning the turnable member in either direction from its rest position increases the stored energy of the coil spring. To control closing of the door damping means providing differential resistance to movement in two directions are provided so that movement of the actuating member from its rest position in either Adirection is less damped by the damping means than return of the actuating member to its rest position under the influence of the coil spring.

This invention relates to an improved door of the kind which can swing through at least 90 in either direction from its closed position. Such doors are referred to hereinafter as double-swing doors.

It is known to close a wide entrance to a building, for example the entrance to a supermarket, with a plurality of pairs of double-swing doors, which doors, when closed, are disposed on one plane. Two common requirements of such an installation of double-swing doors are:

|`(l) That each door shall be returned automatically from each of its open positions to the closed position, and

(2) That the doors shall be stackable in their open position as compactly as possible at one or both sides of the entrance, so that a practically unobstructed entrance to the building may be provided.

Requirement (l) above necessitates the provision of a door closer mechanism and with double-swing doors it is customary to conceal such a mechanism either in the transom of the door frame or in the floor beneath the door and to arrange for the actuating spindle of the door closer mechanism to act as one of the vertical hinge pins for the door. The door closer mechanisms at present available for this purpose have a length of at least l2 inches and a width of at least 3% inches.

When double-swing doors provided with door closer mechanisms of the kind mentioned above have to satisfy requirement (2) above, it will be appreciated that provision must be made for moving the door closer mechanism with the doors in a suitably dimensioned channel formed in the transom or in the oor. Since the doors must stack compactly at the side of the entrance, the door closer mechanisms must be oriented in a dirction so that they interfere as little as possible with this compact stacking. This means in practice that the door closer mechanisms have to be oriented with their longest dimension disposed substantially at right angles to the doors when the latter occupy their closed positions. This involves providing a channel along the transom, or in the floor, having a Width of at least l2 inches in which the door closer mechanisms can slide when the doors are moved to a side of the entrance. In the case of transom-mounted door closer mechanisms this leads to the disadvantage that a very Wide and unsightly transom must be provided,

3,624,864 Patented Dec. 7, 1971 ice while in the case of oor-mounted door closer mechanisms it leads to the disadvantage that the cost of the installation is considerably increased by the additional work which has to be carried out in covering the wide channel in the iloor.

An object of the present invention is to provide a door-closer mechanism for a double-swing door which does not give rise to the disadvantages referred to above.

According to the present invention a door-closer mechanism comprises a turnably mounted actuating member, first and second thrust members connected to the actuating member to move in opposite directions when the actuating member turns in either direction from a rest position, a coil spring engaged by the thrust members with its axis parallel to said opposite directions whereby turning the turnable member in either direction from 4its rest position increases the stored energy of the coil spring, damping means providing differential resistance to movement in two directions and means for coupling said damping means to the actuating member so that movement of the actuating member from its rest position in either direction is less damped by the damping means than return of the actuating member to its rest position under the influence of the coil spring.

The construction of door-closer mechanism described in the foregoing paragraph can be dimensioned so that it can be secured to, or embedded in a door and contained wholly between two planes in which the front and rear surfaces of the top or bottom rail of the door lie.

The actuating member on the door-closer mechanism would cooperate, when the door is erected in a doorway, with a further member in the transom or in the iloor of the doorway. One of the members would be a pin (normally of non-circular cross-section) and the other member would be a recess to receive the pin. It would be usual to make the actuating member on the door in the form of a projecting pin and to form the further member in the transom or door as a socket member. It will be appreciated however that the actuating member on the door could be in the form of a plate recessed to receive the end of a pin projecting down from the transom or projecting up from the oor.

Conveniently the actuating member of the door closer mechanism serves as one of the pivots for the door.

When a double-swing door employing a door-closer mechanism in accordance with the invention is used in a multiple door installation of the kind described above, the door closer mechanism does not have to 'be moved in a channel in the transom or in the oor. Instead it is only necessary to move the further member (normally a small socket member, in which a projecting spindleforming the actuating member of the closer mechanismengages), along said channel. Accordingly a much narrower channel can be provided in the transom or oor.

We prefer to mount the door-closer mechanism on or in the top rail of the door and, in order that the door shall have the neatest possible appearance, we prefer to embed the mechanism in the top rail. In this case the doorcloser mechanism must have a maximum width which is less than the thickness of the top rail of the door. If, however, the door-closer mechanism is mounted on the upper edge of the top rail of the door, we prefer to house the mechanism in a casing having parallel side walls and a width substantially equal to the thickness of the door.

Where the door-closer mechanism is located in the top or bottom rail of the door, a self-closing double-swing door can be provided without a hinge stile, a design of door particularly favoured for stackable glass doors for wide entrances.

The standard thickness of the top and bottom rails of doors installed in the entrances to buildings such as supermarkets is 1% inches. If such `a door is Imade in accordance with the present invention with a door-closer mechanism embedded in the top or 'bottom rail, it will be appreciated that the width of the door closer mechanism must 'be less than 1% inches, for example 11/2 inches. On the other hand the door-closer mechanism can have a length which is almost equal to the width of the door.

One preferred embodiment of the door-closer mechanism in accordance with the invention, for employment with a double-swing door, will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a sectional plane of part of the door-closer mechanism shown with its actuating member in the rest position,

FIG. 2 is a sectional side elevation of the door-closer mechanism of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a sectional plan corresponding to FIG. l but showing the actuating member rotated through 90,

FIG. 4 is a plan of the hydraulic damping device used in conjunction with the door-closer mechanism of FIG. 1,

FIG. 5 is a sectional side elevation of the device of FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 is a scrap plan of part of the casing of the door-closer mechanism, and

FIGS. 7, 8 and 9 are sections on the lines VII-VII, VIII-VIII and IX-IX, respectively.

Referring rst to FIGS. 1, 2, 7 and 8, the door-closer mechanism comprises -a casing 1 formed by two elongated channel sections 2 and 3 held in spaced relationship by an upper plate 4 and a lower plate 5 so that the webs of the two channel sections are parallel to one another and the anges of one channel section are aligned with and directed towards the flanges of the other channel section. Adjacent to the web of each channel section is a slide bar 6 and 7, the bars having toothed racks 6a and 7a respectively, formed at one end thereof, with the teeth of one rack facing the teeth of the other rack. Between said racks 6a and 7a an actuating spindle 8 of the door-closer mechanism is rotatably mounted, the axis of the spindle 8 being disposed midway between the two racks and at right angles to the flanges of the casing sections. A toothed pinion 9 is secured to the actuating spindle 8 and meshes with the teeth of both racks, the upper end of the spindle projecting from the casing in a portion of square cross-section. From the description so far given, it will be appreciated that rotation of the actuating spindle 8 Irelative to the casing 1 in the direction of the arrow A in FIG. 1 causes the bar 6 to slide to the right (as shown in the drawing) in its casing section and the bar 7 to slide to the left. FIG. 3 shows the relative positions of the bars 6 and 7 after a 90 rotation of the actuating spindle 8.

Each bar supports two spaced apart, inwardly-projecting lugs 10 and 11 each lug on one of the bars being opposite to, and projecting towards, a lug on the other bar to provide two spaced-apart pairs of opposed lugs.

A helically-coiled spring 12 is disposed within the casing with its longitudinal axis parallel to and disposed substantially midway between the bars. The spring 12 surrounds a rod 13 which is secured to a block 14 at that end closest to the actuating spindle 8 and which is slidably received in a bore 15 in a second 'block 16 at its other end. One end of the spring 12 bears against an enlarged end 17 of the block 14 and the other end of the spring 12'bears against an enlarged end 18l of the second block 16. The spacing apart of the lugs 10 and 11 on the bars `6 and 7 and the length of the spring 12 are chosen so that the spring is slightly compressed and tends to maintain the two bars in the position shown in FIGS. 1 `and 2 (i.e. a position in which the lugs of one bar are opposite to the lugs of the other bar). This position (referred to herein as the rest position) represents the position of the spindle 8 corresponding to the minimum stored energy of the spring 12. If, with the two bars in the rest position, the actuating spindle 8 is rotated in either direction, the two bars will be moved in opposite directions and the lugs of each of said pairs of opposed lugs will ybecome separated, in the direction of the axis of the spring 12 by a distance equal to twice the distance each bar moves. Consequently rotation of the spindle 8 in either direction compresses the spring between one lug 10 and one lug 11 by an amount equal to twice the distance moved by each bar.

The stored energy of the spring is increased in this way and the spring exerts a restoring force on the lugs 10' and 11 tending to restore them to the rest position. This in turn exerts a restoring torque on the actuating spindle 8 of the mechanism via the racks 6a and 7a and the pinion 9 meshing therewith.

FIG. 3 shows the most stressed condition of the spring that would be met with in practice (i.e. a position corresponding to the door in the fully open position) and it will be seen that the rod 13 has penetrated the block 16 almost to the full depth of the bore 15.

To provide a positive hold to the door in the rest position of the door-closer mechanism, the pinion 9 may be provided with a groove 19 (see FIG. 2) in which a narrowed end of the block 14 can locate.

To provide a positive hold for the door in intermediate positions between the fully open and closed positions, a locking lever 20 is pivotally mounted on the upper surface of the block 14, the lever 30 having an upstanding peg 21 which projects into a camming recess 22 (see FIG. 6) formed in the upper plate 4 of the casing. The end of the lever 20 adjacent to the lugs 10 is contoured to provide a cam surface 23 which serves to deflect the lever 20 to that side of the casing opposite to the side against which that bar is located which moves to the right during rotation of the spindle 8. FIG. 3 shows the lever 20 after it has been deflected by the lug 10 on the bar 6 into a position in which it can bear against the lug 10 on the bar 7 when the door is released. The engagement between the lever 20 and the appropriate lug 10 prevents the spindle becoming free to rotate when the restoring force of the spring 12 is countered by a hydraulic damper in the manner now to be described.

The door-closer mechanism as described would elect a very rapid closing of the door which, in practice, could be dangerous. In order to slow down the rate at which the spring 12 restores the mechanism to the rest position, a damper is employed and one suitable design for such a damper is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. When referring to these iigures, i-t should be understood that the doorcloser mechanism would be located to the right, but for convenience only the outer end of the block 16 of the doorcloser mechanism has been shown. The damper illustrated is of the hydraulic kind and comprises a piston 24 slidably received in a cylinder 25 and connected, via a piston rod 26, to the end of the block 16. The piston rod 26 extends through one end 27 of the cylinder and is surrounded by oil seals 28 to prevent leakage of hydraulic fluid from the cylinder 2S.

The piston 24 contains through-bores 29 which communicate with a cavity formed in the leading face 30 of the piston 24. A captive ball 31 located in the cavity provides a non-return valve to close the bores 29 when the piston 24 moves to the left in FIG. 5, but which opens the bores for free passage of hydraulic -fluid when the piston 24 is moved to the right. A second ball 312 is provided in a second cavity formed in a screw 33 tapped into the end face 34 of the cylinder 2S which confronts the leading face 30 of the piston 24, the ball 32 closing the cavity in the screw 33 when the pressure in the chamber 35 (formed between the end face 34 ofthe cylinder and the leading face 30 of the piston) is increased and the ball 32 allowing flow into the chamber 35 when said pressure is reduced. A by-pass passage 36 is formed above the cylinder 25, communication between the cylinder 25 and the passage 36 being via a large opening 37 at the end of the cylinder adjacent to the end 27, a smaller opening 38 at the other end and an even smaller opening 39 adjacent to the face 34 of the cylinder 25. It will be appreciated that the opening 39 (which is the only one available for hydraulic iluid to ilow out of the chamber 35) controls the rate of flow of hydraulic uid from the chamber 35 when the piston 24 is moving to the left (i.e. when the balls 31 and 32 are closing their appropriate bores). The rate of ow of hydraulic fluid through the opening 39 is controlled by a bleed valve 40 which can be adjusted to suit the requirements of any particular installation.

If we now consider the hydraulic damper in conjunction with the door-closer mechanism, it will be seen that as the door-closer mechanism moves from the rest position shown in FIG. l to the fully open position shown in FIG. 3, the piston 24 will be moved from the position shown in full lines in FIG. to the position shown in dotted lines in FIG. 5. As the piston makes this move, hydraulic fluid ilows freely through the bores 129 and past the ball 32 into the chamber 35. Thus the damper does little to restrict the opening movement of the door. When the door is released, however, the spring 12 attempts to return the lugs and 11 to their rest position and this implies a movement of the block 16 (and thus a movement of the piston 24) to the left in FIG. 5. Movement of the piston in this direction, however, can only occur at the rate at which hydraulic fluid can escape from the chamber 35. As has already been explained, this rate of flow is determined by the setting of the bleed lvalve 40.

Since the block 16 is prevented from moving to the left by the hydraulic damper, the spring 12 is prevented from expanding by the hydraulic pressure in the cornpression chamber and therefore (referring to FIG. 3) the bar 6 would be free to move to the left and the bar 7 to move to the right independently of the spring 12. -In order to prevent this free movement, the locking lever 20 is provided. This lever, by virtue of its engagement with one of the lugs 10 and by virtue of the interconnection of the bars 6 and 7 through the pinion 9, positively holds the door so that it can only return to -the closed position under the control of the restoring action of the damper.

The camming recess 22 in the upper plate 4 has surfaces 41 and 42 formed on that surface adjacent to the actuating spindle 8 and these surfaces 41 and 42, by virtue of their engagement with the peg 21, return the lever 20 into its central position as the closer mechanism slowly returns to its rest position.

The above described door-closer mechanism may, for example, be embedded in the top rail of a double-swing door with the two opposed flanges of the channel sections 2 and 3 flush with the upper edge of the top rail and with the actuating spindle 8 projecting from said upper edge. The projecting end of the spindle 8 can then be received in a square hole formed in a suitable socket member which is non-rotatably mounted in the transom above the door. A pivot pin projecting from the lower edge of the bottom rail of the door, the axis of this pin being aligned with the axis of the spindle 8, can then be received in a suitable socket member disposed in the oor beneath the door. The orientation of the square end of the spindle 8 and the socket member which receives it are chosen so that the door is in its closed position when the door-closer mechanism is in its rest position. If the door is now opened in either direction from its closed position, the actuating spindle 8 is prevented from turning by its socket member and consequently the casing 1 of the door-closer mechanism rotates about the spindle. This rotation results in the compression of the spring 12 previously described causing an increase in the stored energy of the spring and a subsequent controlled return of the door to the closed position when the door is released.

It will be appreciated that the embodiment described is just one example of a door-closer mechanism in accordance with the invention and that many modifications to details of the construction can be made within the ambit of the following claims.

In a modified construction of door-closer mechanism, the lever 20 can be moved towards the damper end of the casing 1 and the lugs 10 removed. The lugs 11 are then sandwiched between the enlarged end 18 (which is now slidably mounted on the rod 13) and an abutment which is screwed to the end of the rod 13. In a manner similar to that already described, rotation of the spindle 8 in either direction will cause compression of the spring 12 by an amount equal to twice the distance moved by each bar 6 and 7, the rod 13 being drawn to the left by engagement of one lug 11 with the abutment and the end 18 being moved to the right along the rod 13 by the other lug 11.

The repositioned lever 20 may control movement of a bolt across the casing 1 so that it either engages in an aperture in the bar 6 or a similar aperture in the bar 7 allowing for controlled return of the door to the closed position under the influence of the damper.

What is claimed is:

1. A door-closer mechanism comprising a turnably mounted actuating member, first and second thrust members connected to the actuating member to move simultaneously in opposite directions when the actuating member turns in either direction from a rest position, a coil spring engaged by the thrust members with its axis parallel to said opposite directions whereby turning the turnable member in either direction from its rest position increases the stored energy of the coil spring, damping means providing diierential resistance to movement in two directions and means for coupling said damping means to the actuating member so that movement of the actuating member from its rest position in either direction is less damped by the damping means than return of the actuating member to its rest position under the influence of the coil spring.

2. A door-closer mechanism as claimed in claim 1 in which the actuating member is coupled to a pinion engaging diametrically disposed racks, the racks being coupled to spaced apart opposed pairs of lugs between which the coil spring is disposed.

3. A door-closer mechanism as claimed in claim 1 in which the coil spring is mounted so that on a turning movement of the actuating member from its rest position, the spring is compressed by twice the distance either of the thrust members moves.

4. A door-closer mechanism as claimed in claim 1 in which the damping means comprises a piston slidable within a liquid-filled cylinder, valves being provided to allow easy movement of the piston in one direction but slower movement of the piston in the other direction and means to couple the piston to that one of the thrust members moving in the easy-movement direction of the piston when the actuating member turns from its rest position and means to retain the coupling between said one thrust member and the piston until the actuating member is substantially back in its rest position.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,323,338 12/1919 Voight 16-69 1,989,908 2/1935 Bohnsack et al. 16-64 2,676,796 4/ 1954 Meyerholz 49-326 I. KARL BELL, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 49-386 

